How to continue using FireStarter on Fire TV and Fire TV Stick software version 5.0.5.1

Starting with software version 5.0.5.1, Amazon has started disabling FireStarter by name on the Fire TV and Fire TV Stick. XDA member jkchr1s has done a great job figuring out the details of FireStarter’s removal and has released a clone app that currently works with the new software version. Here’s what you need to know about the new clone app, called FireStopper, and the proper way to cleanly switch to using it for the time being.

If your device is rooted…

If your Fire TV or Fire TV Stick is rooted, you can re-enable FireStarter by doing the following:

If your device is not rooted…

FireStopper is the exact same app as FireStarter, just with a different package name so it bypasses the blacklist. jkchr1s, the creator of FireStopper, wants to make it clear that sphinx02, the creator of FireStarter, still gets all the credit and support for his great app. jkchr1s has no intention to continue developing FireStopper as a separate app. FireStopper is just being released to get FireStarter users back up and running while sphinx02 figures out what he wants to do with FireStarter.

Things to know about FireStopper

Amazon can easily ban this app too, without needing to push a new software update, so this may just be a temporary fix.

If the official FireStarter gets updated, FireStopper’s updater will install the new version of FireStarter alongside FireStopper, so you will then need to uninstall FireStopper.

HOME button double-press detection does not work. Double pressing the HOME button will open the Fire TV’s app section, which is a new feature added with software update 5.0.5.1.

HOME button single-press detection does work, but only through the ADB method. So you must force quit FireStopper, and toggle ADB debugging off and on, to make other ADB connections.

Your FireStarter settings will not be transferred over to FireStopper.

80 comments

“Amazon can easily ban this app too, without needing to push a new software update, so this may just be a temporary fix.”

I was wondering if Amazon could fluidly take apps on and off the banned list or if they could only do it thru FW updates. I am guessing this probably cam from a Amazon source ? I am guessing Amazon can push an updated banned list just as easy as it pushes a new banner ad ?

Hopefully the official update comes with a randomizing method to bypass this.

Even if they can, all we have to do is change the package name to something unique to us and not use the same downloaded file from xda. That way Amazon won’t know what package names to ban. Or, another suggestion I saw, was to name the package something that is already an established app that way Amazon can’t ban it without banning the real app.

If you’re willing to shut down the system or unmount the USB stick, you don’t even need to sideload it. Just copy the APK to a folder on the USB driver using a computer. Then open it win ES File Explorer and install it.

If you have a router with a USB port that can be used for USB drives, you can use that to make the file available to to ES File Explorer using a spare USB stick you have.

There’s supposed to be a way to share files from Windows, but since Vista or 7 I’ve never had any luck actually sharing the files with a non-Windows device.

PS: There really isn’t a way to sideload using ES File Explorer. That’s done with ADB on a separate system. And the Install command is used from that system, so ES File Explorer wouldn’t be used or needed in the process.

That is a lot of information in this post that obfuscates the best path and not wholy correct. I believe you can still install apks through es file explorer if you set your firetv up as a “androidtv” under network. If you select an apk on your phone in es fileexplorer, it allows you to install to androidtv.

Just my two cents, don’t muddy up the response with “usbs on routers” or anything else. There are a lot of people with limited tech knowledge that come through here. There are quite a few ways to do things. Using Es file explorer on my phone or tablet to send a file to another device running esfile explorer is the easiest way to transfer for me.

Also to your comment below, is it really a good idea to advise opening a file in notepad to find what it is? Just simplify the help. Duplicate the efforts, if you get the same results, then identify that to someone.
Its probably just his browser. Solving the issue probably doesn’t require a step by step fix with more than one post…

“That is a lot of information in this post that obfuscates the best path”
Sideloading using ES File Explorer, if even a thing, is not a “best path” in the first place. If this person had the “best path” available, they wouldn’t be sideloading.

“I believe you can still install apks through es file explorer”
You can still install APKs with ES File Explorer, I don’t see anyone sideloading with ES File explorer. I’m sure it’s possible somehow. But I only see that happening if you don’t have a PC to use. And even then, I would use a terminal.

“If you select an apk on your phone in es fileexplorer, it allows you to install to androidtv.”
Did this go through Google Translate? We’re talking about Fire TV.

“There are quite a few ways to do things”
And I’ve decided to list the most common ones available on the most common hardware.

“Using Es file explorer on my phone or tablet to send a file to another device running esfile explorer is the easiest way to transfer for me.”
Not everyone has an extra device that uses Android to facilitate that.

“is it really a good idea to advise opening a file in notepad to find what it is”
It’s a wonderful way. It lets the person read the 2-5 letter designation for the file type(PK for a “zipped” file), and some extra information past that(That it’s meant for an Android system. Which lets us know if the “zip” file they downloaded is a normal zipped file, or if it’s the APK itself.

“Duplicate the efforts”
Considering the person is likely not tech savvy and steps claimed may not be accurate, attempting to duplicate may be harder than just assessing the result.

“Solving the issue probably doesn’t require a step by step fix with more than one post…”
I would rather use more than one post that allows the person to respond than to tell them a solution that may not help at all just because it is “probable” they would not need it.

You can transfer an apk from a PC, Mac or other OS using ES File Explorer and an FTP program like Filezilla.

(You must enable your device to receive files from unknown sources in the system settings or the files will not transfer)

To do this, open ES File Explorer on your device. Scroll down and click on “Network” then scroll down and click on “Remote Manager”. In the window to the right you will see a button that says “Turn On”.

Now go to your computer, or whatever device you are transferring files from, and open Filezilla. At the top you will see a window that says “Host”. In this window put the address from your device (192.168.1.20).

In the window that says “Port” you will put 3721(or whatever number is after the colon in the url)

The right window will show your devices files and the left window has file from your computer. On the right side scroll down and open the “Downloads” folder. Find the files you want to transfer in the leftside window and drag them over to the window on the right.

once your files are transferred you can go to the “Downloads” section on your firestick/device and click on the apk’s you downloaded to install them.

It’s not a “clone” app, it’s just a fork with the package renamed to bypass the package name blacklist on reboot. This is still “FireStarter” but with a different package name. :) Please thank sphinx02 for developing the app, I don’t deserve the credit and want to respect the author. All I did was rename the package.

I used “clone” deliberately because it implies it’s the same as the original without any changes. To me, “fork” could be interpreted as you taking the app into your own direction and continuing to develop it separately, since that’s usually the purpose of a forked project.

I’ve updated the post with a second paragraph that explicitly explains your intent. Please let me know if that isn’t sufficient and I’ll be happy to change it.

I believe if you have the new update you should have Kodi Icon in your recent now. I had to delete both Kodi and Ikono TV apps from my purchase history via Amazon Website and then on Fire TV go to Amazon Account settings click on Sync Amazon Content to get Kodi to appear in recent apps. That worked for me, I hope it works for everybody.

How do I uninstall Firestarter, I cannot find the app in applications. If it is still there and I can’t use it, the app is still using precious disk space. I want to know how to uninstall via ES File explorer or Total Commander.

Change browser to downloaded in APK form. The link above is just for a single APK. Seems your browser is zipping it before download. Probably in your browser settings. ES File Explorer will open a zip file and show the APK within. And you can install it from there too.

When I use ES Explorer … it just opens the zip file and starts showing the files. How do I make it actually install the file instead of just unzipping it? Or is there a file within the zip that I should be looking for? Sorry, I’m new to all of this, but I do have adbFire and ES Explorer, so guidance on how to install with either of those would be great. I’ve loaded other apk files with adbFire, but I don’t see an apk file anywhere withing the zip file (???). TIA!!!

Not sure what file your downloading. The file in the post above is just a single APK. If your browser is zipping it. All that should be in the zip is a single APK. ES File Explorer will open the zip file and let you install it from there.

Thank you for patch, I was about to start the who was messing with the fire TV investigation. Of course I should have known it was my friends at amazon. If they can blacklist like this, anyone else wondering why they hadn’t blocked Kodi? Or when they will? I view this as an illegal action tantamount to electronic trespassing. The fire TV is not amazon’s property I purchased it and the capabilities it had upon purchase should not be made unavailable without my express permission. I think a class action forcing Amazon to restore all functionality including root etc. And maintain all features going forward or refund the purchase price at the buyers discretion is an idea worth looking into. Any attorneys here on xda that can comment?

So since “Amazon can easily ban this app too, without needing to push a new software update, so this may just be a temporary fix.”

AFTVnews should throw together a tutorial on either how to compile the FireStarter while giving it a different package name or a tutorial on how to change the package name of a APK file.

If everyone using FireStarter had different package name it would be might harder for Amazon to ban them. It would kill FireStarters ability to install its own updates but besides that I see not major drawbacks

Did you block amazon update with adb command on all your firestick family before ?
My question is if amazon can remotely
bypass method block adb command to force
the update … unhide or re enable com.amazon.device.software.ota
If you did not block update , it’s normal the stick get ota update..

No did not do that, thought was only working on rooted devices? Oh well is working this way fine for now single home click button and no double click which is fine, I have changed package name to my own unique one see if makes a difference as if the can do to one they surely can include the firestopper one next also right?! How long until they do the kodi package name too! I did change that package name also but problem with that when you run the kodi apk it obviously looks for that package name on startup, doesn’t find it and force closes back to firestarter homepage, something to do with the obb folder I think? Try it, a fresh kodi apk but with a changed package name,launch it, it wont work but this is what we need to be figuring out NOW to protect and keep that safe its only a matter of time folks!

Yes you can block amazon update on no rooted firetv/stick with adb command ‘hide’ ( ‘disable’ can do on rooted firetv/stick).
I’m s on 5.0.5 , so i’ve no problem with firestarter double clic, but on 5.0.5.1 kodi icon is in recent first place .. so it’s not a big problem to launch it…
For kodi , if amazon ban app , you can
use adb command to ‘hide’ the service app who is blocking app…( no need root)
So i recommend you to block amazon update with ‘hide’ command to
verify next change in amazon update before unhide and update stick if it’s safe.

Yes that is great it worked! I used ADBfire on my PC to block further updates, now when checking the about updates page it just says checking, then when clicked just says error, brill! I’m happy now and sorted my family’s sticks this way too :) say one of them logged into an amazon account would this somehow revert the hide command and force an update still? Is it also correct if they factory reset device when rebooted and connected to net it then checks for update before anything else?

Current wondershare software has gone free trial for 15days then you have to buy. You’ll need to find an older version. Wondershare is awesome as it also allows you to copy the .kodi file as a backup if your existing build or to replace it with another .kodi file that has a different build.

I used firestarter to easily launch my kodi app but it seems like with the new update, fire TV puts the kodi app in the recent apps section. So, I guess I don’t need the firestarter all any longer. Am I missing something? What other uses for the firestarter app are there besides easily launching non official apps?

Yeah your missing the point of firestarter completely, I as well as many others I think want to use it solely so we DON’T have to use scAmazon’s bloatware/crapware menu system altogether! I want to use my device as I want to use it and use only the apps I put on it ie kodi, u*** , m*** etc not what scAmazon want to push onto me! Just my opinion of course ;)

Also don’t need to be signed into an account to use the firestarter system, another limitation of scAmazon! Can’t use dummy accounts now either, you have to put in card details for account to verify etc far too controlling!

How do you load it on without an account? Won’t it keep asking for an account? Also, I’ve been able to log on and create Amazon accounts without card info, I just activated the “1 click” billing option and it accepts it.

No I meant once you’ve setup the stick with firestarter or the new firestopper modded one, then blocked updates using method 2, then toggle adb on the stick, then back in firestopper and tick 3rd adb option once more is all good, you then deregister the stick! No need for sign in anymore, one click home button loads firestopper launched and there are all your own installed apks to use and no sAmazon crap in ya face! Happy days :)

“you can re-enable FireStarter by doing the following:”
this is not very clear at all
can you please be more specific , this makes it sound like this will work only if you already had firestarter installed
so i am on 5.2.1.0 with kingoroot and i have never installed firestsrter,so now do i run the shell commands 1st or do i have to send the firestarter.apk over abd 1st and then do the shell commands for it to work, or it doesn’t matter?

also i just tried to run shell commands 1st without installing firestarter apk but it is not working at all for me
i just got this damn thing connected a minute ago , i ran the method 1 guide on update blocking and i got connected just fine and pretty sure i successfully blocked updates, but now when i try to connect via adb it says “connected to :5555
the i enter adb shell and i get “error: device offline” every single time
does this new update or kingoroot break adb? does blocking updates break it?
it was just working now i can’t get it to work at all even after several reboots,also “adb disconnect says no such device
and also i tried to install mouse toggle and the app in sowing on the fire stick and look like it is working normally but when i double click the play button it does nothing
i think this new update and kingo root are severely flawed and break adb and mouse toggle app

ok i uninstalled mouse toggle and screenrotation and now i got adb shell working again, so either one of those 2 apps break adb and cause it to say offline, i am guessing it was mouse toggle since it was not working and launching at startup
but now the pm enable de.belu.firestarter command is throwing an error: java:lang.illegalargumentexception:unknown package: de.belu.firestarter!root@montoya:/#

It’s not that those apps “break” ADB. It;s because you can only have one ADB connection at a time. So if an app is making an ADB connect itself, which mouse toggle needs to do to work, then you will not be able to make an ADB connection from your PC.

In the future, you don’t need to uninstall the apps. Just go in to the Fire TV’s settings menu and force quit the app, then go and toggle the ADB debugging setting of and on a few times. That will free up the one allowed ADB connection and allow you to connect from your PC.

And then install FireStarter as usual. Just know that all of FireStarter’s features don’t work with 5.0.5.1 and newer software versions. The last software version that works perfectly with FireStarter is version 5.0.5.

ok thanks i already figured it out
but i could swear i saw a guide on here on how to re enable the home button detection for firestarter on rooted devices with Fw oveer 5.0.5 with some adb commands ,but i now i can’t seem to find it
unless i imagned it it or confused it with something else

now i will see if i can get mouse toggle working
seems to not work on this new fw but this was before i installed firestarter , but on my other stick weh i double tap play button on the home menu i dont see the pointer but the d pad stops working ,on this it does nothing

oh yes actually i think this is backwards, i tried the commands without firestarter being installed 1st and it failed, it worked after i installed firestarter then ran the commands, i think you need to install firestarter then run the commands ,if you don’t install firestarter 1st it doesn’t work , at least not for me but i may have done something else wrong

just a heads up
i tried to get mouse toggle working i tried everything, toggle adb off and on, disconnect from adb toggle quit and relaunch,nothing works mouse toggle does not work with this FW ,so then i tried to reboot
i went to firestarter and it was in my recent apps, i trie to launch it and it said this app can not be launched then it eh icon disappeared
i went into aettings>applications>manage apps and firestarter is now gone form there
so did amazon remove this from my device? and break mousetoggle?
maybe they disables double click play button detection too now
or do i have to reinstall or do these commands after ever reboot to make firestarter show up again?

“HOME button single-press detection does work, but only through the ADB method. So you must force quit FireStopper, and toggle ADB debugging off and on, to make other ADB connections.”

what do you mean by this?
i can not get single click detection working i tried this
i force quit firestopper , i went to developer options i toggled adb on off then on again then you don’t say what to do next, i tried to reopen firestopper and tried to use 1 click home button detection and it still is not working, has this been disabled in 5.2.1.0? or is it kingo root causing the problem? or do i need to do something else with adb?

all i get are 3 or 4 different error messages when i try to enaable adb home detection in firestopper settings, clearing logcat failed
somehting went wrong restarting home button observer no matter what i do force quit, restart, toggle open adb on off before after and during enable disable adb home detection option nothing works just keeps getting error messages you don;t say what to do or what order to do i tin but i tried it all and nothing seems to ever work here

just make a damn amazon account, i’m sick of playing cat and mouse with them, it’s only custom launchers they wanna block so simple answer is don’t use them! Use theirs and all is good again in the world, really is not worth the headache mate!

I have FireStarter on my Amazon Fire Stick. Do I need to be in this launcher in order to watch Kodi? Is FireStarter a safe way to watch Kodi or can I use Fire Tv home page as my launcher?
2. In Firestarter settings, do I have to select Firestarter app in the Startup application or can I use whichever one I want to start my viewing? Does Firestarter still work in background if I select the Fire Tv Home as my Startup application in Firestarter?